Steve Stephens (USA) set the track for 46 starters in Thursday’s WEF Challenge Cup. Nine advanced to the jump-off, where seven of those jumped double clear. Last to go, Beezie Madden and Cortes ‘C’ clocked the winning time of 35.52 seconds. They edged out Conor Swail and Grand Cru vd Jijf Eiken, owned by Vanessa Mannix, with their time of 35.99 seconds. Tiffany Foster and Artisan Farms LLC’s Tripple X III set the pace, first to go in the jump-off in 36.48 seconds, finishing in third. McLain Ward (USA) and Double H Farm’s HH Azur placed fourth in 37.09 seconds.
Believe it or not, Thursday’s win was actually Madden’s first of the year. She was happy to see Cortes ‘C’ in top form and knew that Stephen’s track suited her mount, a 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Randel Z x Darco).
“This is my first win of the whole season. I have been second a couple times, but it feels great to win in week 12. It feels great to not go through the whole circuit without winning,” Madden laughed. “My horses have been going well. We have not put a lot of pressure on them yet, so it was nice that Cortes came through this week.”
“Today I went for it,” Madden said. “The jump-off suited him. It was not a real running track where you had to fly to the fences. I could make neat turns without running a lot, and still be quite fast today, so it was a good jump-off for that.”
Madden picked Cortes ‘C’ to show in the final week because of the tracks she expected from Stephens in the final CSI 5* competition.
“Usually he builds a course for a nice, big, scopey horse, so hopefully it will suit Cortes Saturday night too,” Madden explained. “The top few were all big, scopey horses today. This is a 5*, so it should be difficult this week. You can kind of plan on that.”
